Feathered Rose - Paused
by Kaiimei
Summary: Summer and Ruby were missing, and Raven wasn't planning on giving any help. But, finding Ruby in her dead mother's arms, Raven saw a chance and she took it, taking Ruby as one of her Tribe and raising her properly, if indirectly. Now, at 15, Ruby just HAD to get noticed by Beacon. But Raven was determined to let Ruby avoid the same fate that befell her Mother, at any cost.
1. Chapter 1

_**WARNING!**_

**This is gonna be brutal. I'm writing this because I don't really have anything coming to mind for Crimson Dovah's Friday Chapter, and I felt like starting this story, though it'll be one of those ones that'll have absolutely no place on the schedule, and will come out whenever I finish a chapter. Chapters will be much longer than my other stories, but a lot more erratic.**

**It will also depict violence far more than any other story so far. This first chapter being a benchmark for what I want this story to go into. Expect some nasty brutality to come out of this. YE HAVE BEEN WARNED! Yarr! idontknowwhyimapiratenowbutok.**

**If you want to, listen to this while Summer sings it to Ruby. It hurts my heart, but it fits quite well for Summer comforting Ruby in this scenario:**

/watch?v=URgsCjl8fG0

* * *

"Ruby! Ruby Rose, come back here you little red sprite, we need to go or we'll be late!"

Summer Rose, the mother of Ruby Rose, yelled after her daughter happily, watching her roll and dash around the field they were in, apparently entirely ignorant to their surroundings, happily playing carelessly as only children are capable of, a bright smile on her face as she watched the flora around her react to her in various ways. Butterflies erupted into fluttering clouds in a kaleidoscope of colors, whilst flowers gusted about from her passage, some shedding petals to be caught in her wake.

"RUBY!"

However, what Ruby was forced to notice was the sharp change in her mothers voice. Huffing, she turned towards her mother, eyes widening when she realized that her mother wasn't simply stood as she usually was, arms crossed, smile on her face, watching her play. Instead, her weapons were in hand, and she was running full-tilt towards Ruby in a panic. The only words Ruby could think to say when she saw that was "Mommy?".

And was the last word she could say to her mother before something struck her head from behind, knocking her out instantly in a blinding flash of searing white pain.

* * *

"Tch, bitch wasn't even worth the time to come out here."

Opening her eyes slowly, Ruby could make out only a vague brown outline walking nearby. Closing her eyes tightly against the hammering pain from the back of her head, she slowly opened her eyes again, and had to stifle a gasp at the sight before her.

Her mother.

Her mother, lying on the floor motionless.

Her mother, with her own weapons sticking out of her body in a horrifying imitation of Ursa spikes.

Closing her eyes from the nightmare in front of her, Ruby desperately tried to wake herself up, convince herself that what she just saw was nothing but a nightmare. Her mother was fine, she was probably just downstairs in their home on Patch, already baking cookies for her and Yang for when they woke up. Since, of course, cookies are the best breakfast food, and Yang can go eat a sprout if she thought otherwise.

Curling up into a ball, Ruby rocked herself gently backwards and forwards, trying desperately to wake up, refusing to accept what had just happened, completely incapable of even comprehending the sheer idea of her mother being defeated. She was Summer Rose, slayer of monsters and baker of cookies, she was too strong to lose.

And abruptly stopped when she heard the footsteps from before halted, changing direction and starting to approach her. Clenching her eyes tight, with her hands wrapped around her own head, Ruby started to softly cry, her mind knowing that she wasn't in a dream, but consciously refusing to accept it.

When she heard the figure stop next to her, Ruby slowly opened one eye, looking up at her nightmare.

He was tall. To Ruby, it was like looking at a Goliath. He was wearing a brown leather duster, but open-chested, probably to show off the handful of scars adorning his chest. On his arms were bladed vambraces, and Ruby mentally patted herself on the back for remembering the name of the things strapped to his arms. Sticking out of the end of them were what looked like twin-gun barrels, though that was as far as she got examining the figure stood above her before said figure hunched down next to her, his Gold pinprick eyes sharply gazing at her wide Silver eyes.

"Well now. I guess they were right. Silver...Eyes. Oh, my Queen will be so happy. To be able to pluck out not two, but four Silver eyes in a single evening!"

At the mention of plucking, Ruby's own eyes widened further, and she threw a shaky glance towards her mother, still lying unmoving from her position on the ground a few feet behind this new person. She opened her mouth, and croakily let out her first words to him. "E-Eyes?", flinching back when the man doubled over in hysterical laughter.

"Oh, that is precious. You haven't the slightest clue what's going on, do you flower?". Mustering her courage, Ruby turned her head upwards, flinching when the pain from the back of her head flared up again and shook her head at him shakily. "Oh, that is just the best present I could have ever gotten! You see, your eyes are special, and my Queen...dislikes those who have them. And so, it was put to me to remove your mother's eyes, lest she use them and become a threat. So that is what I must do, and is what I have done. Now, your eyes are the same, so I'm afraid yours must go as well."

With that said and not even a brief moment of hesitation, the man flicked his hand forwards, jabbing it towards Ruby's still stationary face and brutally cutting out one of her eyes with his vambrace, relishing the moment when the child felt from fearful observation, to utterly terrified pain at the jagged wound on her face. Before he could relish it further though, a sharp pain erupted in his chest, and Tyrian looked down to see the blade of a weapon protruding from his body. Turning slowly, he looked down at the nearby form of Summer Rose and noted that, despite having both her eyes missing, she had managed to pull one of her weapons out of her own body and throw said weapon at him.

He opened his mouth to retort towards the form, and snapped it shut when he noticed that the blind woman had a white-knuckle grasp on her weapons chain still. Looking down, he noted, somewhat detachedly, that said chain was very nearly taut, and watched as she forcibly yanked the weapon backwards, eviscerating him, and he dropped like a sack of rocks.

"R-Ruby?" Summer called out, coughing up blood from her own wounds, most prominently aside from her missing eyes being the deep stinger-stab in her chest. Hearing a whimper come from the vague direction she knew her attacker's corpse to be in, Summer began the arduous process of dragging her badly-bloodied body towards her daughter, relying on the gasps, whimpers, and cries of pain, which stabbed at Summer's heart far more than any blade, to guide her towards her daughter.

Feeling fabric rather than dirt under her fingers, Summer gently felt along the familiar material she used to make Ruby her own cloak, carefully pawing her way up the material until she felt her daughters clothing, and gently shimmied towards her, grasping her daughter tightly and pulling her close, guiding her daughters head to her shoulder, crying her own tears at Ruby's agonized wails.

While Summer didn't know it for sure, she made an educated guess that from what Tyrian had gloated about, he had taken one or both of her eyes, and her arms clenched tighter around Ruby when she thought about it.

Stifling a gasp at the sudden spike of pain coming from her own wound, Summer carefully prodded Ruby, feeling her as best she could for injuries. Satisfied that she hadn't been stabbed or anything of the sort, she slowly raised a hand towards her daughter's face, feeling the wetness of blood mixed with tears running down her neck, and sighing in relief when she could only feel one stream, rather than two coming from both eyes. While it was not something she ever wanted to be happy about, Summer had to take solace in the fact that Ruby at least wasn't totally blinded by the sadistic Faunus.

But, for the moment, Summer simply sat there, her daughter on her lap, crying out in pain, and unable to do anything but hold her, gently rocking her back and forth and gently singing to her.

_'Hush your cries.'_

She adjusted her grip on Ruby when the girl nearly fell from her arms as she went slack.

_'Close your eyes.'_

And grimaced when she realized what she just said, though if Ruby's quiet whimper was any indication, she either didn't notice or just didn't care, happy to hear her mothers voice still.

_'S-tay with me.'_

Summer's voice cracked, and she almost stopped entirely but for the tight grip Ruby had her hand in, hand tightly clasped between her own two small hands, whilst Summer's other hand were on Ruby's missing eye, desperately kicking herself for not unlocking Ruby's aura before that day.

_'Let's just dream, quietly,'_

She could feel Ruby relaxing more into her arms, luffed to sleep by her gentle singing.

_'Of what might be.'_

And her last moments before darkness took her were like that, Ruby held in her arms, the pair of them sat in the middle of the field, tightly gripping one another, Ruby lulled to sleep despite her pain by Summers' voice, while Summer felt her strength wane from her wounds, and she let her head fall...

* * *

"What do you mean 'she never came back' Tai?"

Growling, Taiyang Xiao-Long had to bite back the scathing retort on his tongue, reminding himself that his other daughter was still in the house with them, settling instead for glaring at Qrow. "I mean, she never came back. She took Ruby with her to Vale, they were meant to be back hours ago, and she never came back."

Sighing, Qrow slumped down onto the nearby couch, looking at Taiyang with an unreadable expression. "Well, have you told Oz?" and flinched back when it looked like his friend and old teammate would bury a fist in his face.

"Of course I haven't told Oz, it's only been a few hours. Still. If it were just her, I'd have no worries, she's strong, but she took Ruby with her. On her own, she could get out of anything, but if Ruby was threatened by something, I don't know what she'd do."

Carefully, as to not piss Tai off any more than necessary, Qrow stood up, laying a hand on his friend's shoulder slowly. "Tai, you know I care about this just as much as you do, but us sitting in here arguing isn't helping. We'll find them. Both of them."

"I know." He replied, looking up at the broken moon hanging above them. "But I worry about what happened. Summer knows I'll go ballistic if she vanishes, so she probably hasn't done this deliberately."

"If you're fishing for an explanation, I don't have one Tai. I'm gonna go search for 'em, they can't have gotten far." Qrow said, turning and stopping short at the short blonde girl stood behind the pair, eyeing them both suspiciously.

"Dad, where's Mom and Ruby?" Yang asked, rubbing her eyes, woken up by the pairs arguing, and heading downstairs after it was made clear they had no intention to stop, stopping both men cold by her blunt question.

"We, Uhh...we don't know Firecracker. Summer took Ruby with her to Vale, and we don't know where they ended up," Qrow said, crouching down next to his niece and rubbing her head, chucking when her hair flared up at the unauthorized contact, "but don't worry, we'll find 'em."

Shrugging, Yang turned around to head back upstairs. "As long as you stop yelling your heads off this early in the morning, I have to be at Signal tomorrow."

* * *

"Raven, please. We need to find her." Qrow said, practically on his knees in front of his sister.

Sighing, Raven put her hand up to her face, rubbing her eyes and glaring at her brother. "I've already told you, no. I don't give a damn what mess Summer got herself into, nor do I particularly care to get dragged into Ozpin's grasp again. Leave. Now." She punctuated her last word by lowering her hand, resting it against her blade.

"So much for family." Qrow muttered under his breath, taking a step back when Raven made to draw her blade on him.

"Family?! You dare say that to me when you abandoned the Tribe, your own family, all to chase Summer's tail and follow the orders of that puppeteering bastard?!" Raven yelled, careful to keep her control in front of her brother, settling instead for glaring at him as he stepped backwards quickly. "Go. Before I send you back in pieces." She said, watching as he did an about-turn, jumping upwards and changing his form to their corvid form, their 'gift' from Ozma.

"Goddamn it Summer, what have you gotten yourself into this time?" Shaking her head, Raven set about her day in the tribe as per usual, the curiosity of what situation Summer had gotten caught up in niggling away at the back her mind the entire time until it reached its boiling point and she threw her arms up in defeat.

Drawing her blade, Raven envisioned Summer and swiped her blade down to form the portal. Only the portal never appeared.

Frowning, Raven went through the same process, clearly picturing Summer in her mind and attempting to create her portal again, only to be met with the same failure. It was that moment when Raven realized what that meant. She had never had anybody she cared about enough to form a portal to before die, but she just knew that it meant Summer had very likely died. Her portals never failed to form, even when the target was asleep, or drugged to the gills, as Raven had learned early and experienced often when creating a portal to Qrow, only to find him face-down on a table, having drunk himself unconscious.

Shrugging it off with her own mentality of the strong survive, Raven continued her day, acting as though nothing was wrong, and that the death of her friend for so many years meant nothing to her. When she reached her tent at the end of her day was the only moment she allowed a single tear to fall as she thought about her friend, and how she'd never see her alive again, never hear her abysmal jokes, or taste her cooking, or watch her fight, or-

Raven cut herself off from her thoughts when she realized she wasn't thinking far enough. if Summer was dead, did that mean Ruby was dead? Why she didn't stay around the little brat very much, she did so enough when she was a baby that she had, despite all chances, created a portal bond between the pair, meaning she could teleport to her.

Drawing her sword again, Raven thought of Ruby, and swiped her arm, taking a step back when, instead of simply doing nothing as she expected, a portal formed in front of her, signalling Ruby's survival at the very least, though what state she'd be in was up for debate. Steeling herself, Raven stepped through, and landed in a large clearing, eyes scanning quickly for hostiles before coming to settle on two corpses and one still living girl, if her portal was any indication.

Stopping herself before another tear could fall at the sight of her friend hunched over her daughter, her eyes missing and a large stab wound through her chest, she saw the nearby corpse and congratulated Summer for at least taking down one of whatever managed to take her down, before her eyes drifted back to the young girl in her arms, shuddering at the sight of the wound on her face.

Carefully, and with sword drawn, she approached the pair, watching the slow rise and fall of the girl's chest, and thought of her own daughter as she got nearer. Once close enough, she sheathed her sword, confident in her security, and knelt down beside her friend, observing the girl in her arms, her eye missing and blood covering her face, yet still strong enough to survive such an ordeal.

Now, Raven was faced with a sudden dilemma. If she took the young girl back to Ozma, he would definitely try to trap her and Ruby in something, and she didn't want his attention back on the Branwen tribe either. But, if she just left her out there, she would, without a doubt, die. She was far too small to even attempt to use her mother's weaponry, and the Grimm out there would chew her to pieces in seconds. If they didn't get her, the wandering bandits and rogue hunters would find her, and she'd wish the Grimm found her first.

Without any warning, a third idea popped into her head. She could bring the girl back to the tribe. She had Silver Eyes, and she was, if Qrows bragging before they separated was any indication, quite skilled in using a scythe, something Raven could use for the tribe.

The only problem would be making the girl stay with the tribe. Force likely wouldn't work, but maybe appealing to her sense of justice would? Keep her away from the bandit side of the tribe for sure, and only use her against the Grimm. Maybe when she grew up and got those silly notions of being a huntress out of her head she'd be more malleable to a bandit lifestyle.

Nodding her head to herself and deciding to come up with more ideas later, Raven carefully levered Ruby out of her mothers arms, watching as Summer's corpse slowly slumped forward, using an arm to slowly lower her to the ground until her forehead was resting against her knees. Without another look back, and Ruby hefted onto one shoulder, Raven drew her blade, and portaled back to the camp, arriving with a loud announcement to a stunned Vernal.

"Got some new meat!"

* * *

**What's that? Too many stories? Well screw you too!**

**In all seriousness though, as I said at the top, this is something I'm gonna write very sparingly. I just wanted to distract myself from my pain for today, and writing this was all I could do, as I hit another block in Crimson Dovah.**

**This is gonna be a lot more erratic. I'll write for this story when I feel like it, and upload it just as randomly. I'll still do my normal stories, this is just an extra thing to scribble out when I can't think of what to write for my other stories.**

**The length will also probably change a lot. When I feel like it's a good time to wrap the chapter up, I'll just let my words meander about until it's done. This story isn't planned, no idea where it'll go, I'm just making it kind of like a river, letting it flow wherever it chooses and going along with it until it's done. So it might take a week for 500 words, or I might have 5000 in 2 days, it just depends on how I feel.**


	2. Chapter 2

**I'm not very good at dealing with the whole...mental breakdown over loss thing. My own experiences with loss was the loss of a cat I'd had since I was born, and I didn't handle it well. I cried for that cat twice. Once on the day when I confirmed it was in fact my cat that had died, and once again, quite recently in fact, when a combination of a specific song and finding an old photo of the cat.**

**I feel like it's quite unhealthy that, in all that time, I've not once cried in sadness. I've cried out of pain, sure, but I've never cried because I was sad, aside from those two times. So, if the story doesn't handle Ruby's loss well, just remember that I don't know much about psychology, so I'm going off what sounds right to me personally.**

**There is some cuteness in this story, as you'll see late in the chapter. There won't be a lot of feel-good stuff, but there will be some because I can't resist.**

**Enough feelsies though, on with the chapter...the slightly less brutal chapter...it's still mean, and a bit ruthless, but not as brutal as chapter 1.**

* * *

"R-Raven, wh..wha...just why?"

Smirking, Raven dumped Ruby off on her cot and turned to Vernal, who still had yet to pick her jaw back up. "Why? Well, a few reasons. First, she has a Silver Eye. Second, it's a great way to stick a middle finger up at Oz and Qrow, since she seemed to be being groomed for Ozpin's army. Third, Summer is dead, and while I hold no love for Qrow, I couldn't just up and let Summer's child die. Anyway, she survived. She could have just let herself die, but she held on. Who am I to just let her die after that?"

Snorting, Vernal gestured towards Ruby, who was unconscious on the bed, wrapped up in both her own crimson cloak and the cloak of her mother, something Raven grabbed as an afterthought. "She doesn't exactly look strong."

"Hmph. Vernal, anybody can be brought low. Take Summer for instance. You definitely wouldn't call her weak, and yet she died, because her opponent was stronger than her. Granted, it may have been Ruby's presence that contributed to that fact, or maybe her opponent attacked her from stealth, but it doesn't matter, she simply wasn't strong enough to defend everything she needed to, and she died for it."

Rubbing her eyes, Vernal just sighed. "You know that if Qrow, Oz, Tai, or anybody from Summer's life finds out where Ruby is, they'll come here full-force for her." Vernal said, carefully avoiding mentioning Raven's daughter, knowing all that would serve to do would be to piss Raven off fiercely.

"That's why they'll never know. Qrow won't return here if he's busy working with Ozpin and searching for Ruby, and Tai will be too worried about losing both daughters to leave Yang and search for Ruby. Oz very rarely leaves his tower, so he won't know either. As long as we're careful, they'll never know she's here." Raven said, hands on her hips as she looked over Ruby. "But, that's enough of that. Bring Mittler here, he can use his semblance and make sure she survives, it wouldn't do to have her die on us."

Nodding, Vernal excused herself from the tent, though the frown on her face never disappeared, only intensifying. '_Why does she care so much about a weakling like that? Should just kill that trash and spend more time training the worthy.' _She thought to herself, throwing a glare over her shoulder back at the tent.

* * *

"Get up weakling, we're going again."

It had been only a week since Ruby woke up in the tribe, and the only people she ever saw was Vernal, Mittler, and Kitsune. Mittler was kind enough, in that he was quiet, only speaking a few times and instead focusing on healing the injuries inflicted on her by Vernal during their 'sparring' sessions, though Ruby was sure the other girl just used it as an excuse to vent frustrations on a living target.

Despite her best attempts to fight back, Ruby was clearly the inferior in their bouts, only ever scoring a single strike against her opponent, which of course bounced harmlessly off her aura and served no more purpose than to anger her opponent, who sent Ruby back to her little corner of the camp far more battered than usual, which got the only reaction Ruby had ever seen from Mittler, one of mild anger, though it was quickly shoved back behind his emotional walls.

Ruby had been given a sword to use in her spars, though it was crude, nothing like the blades her opponent used, instead being a rough-hewn surplus sword the tribe had clearly just taken from some place.

The only solace Ruby had in the tribe was Kitsune, the one assigned by Raven, who Ruby learned was the one who saved her and the leader of the tribe, to be her teacher. Being as young as she was, Raven knew she should not let Ruby's education suffer, knowing that a sharp mind was important when devising battle strategies on the fly. The best part about the whole situation though was that, out of the whole tribe, Kitsune was the only one who treated Ruby as an actual person, rather than as a piece of trash from Vernal, or just another thing to heal for Mittler.

Once, Kitsune had slipped Ruby a small fragment of some baked confection, which Ruby scarfed up happily, and attempted to hug the woman in repayment, though she was easily held at arms length with a smirk from the woman.

Ruby didn't fail to notice the disdain the other members of the tribe held for both her and her teacher, who was a fox Faunus, if the name wasn't enough to give it away, though Ruby was told that it wasn't her birth name, but one she took willingly from Raven, something she called an 'alias', whatever that was. Apparently many in the tribe didn't agree with Raven's decision to save her, seeing her as weak, worthless, small and helpless, just a child who would break during her training and be cast out.

When it was explained to Ruby just what would be expected of her, she had resolved that, to repay her mysterious saviour, she would get strong enough to protect them, like the strength her mother had apparently shown protecting her, even at the cost of her own life.

The biggest thing for Ruby was her past, or rather, her lack of a past.

When she finally woke up, Ruby was...a bit lost at just what situation she'd found herself in, sat on a cot with a giant stood over her, though he quickly left the tent and Kitsune was brought in to assuage her worries and gauge her reactions. It was then that Ruby revealed, in no short words, her confusion at her entire situation. Her entire life memories could be condensed into a single word: Pain.

At that revelation, Kitsune all but screamed for Mittler to come back in, and when he used his semblance on the now conscious girl, he noted that for some reason Ruby's mind had pretty much shut her memories away, though the reason was lost to him, as was the way to retrieve them. All Ruby knew was basic things, like how to talk, how to eat, things a normal person would know. When asked about her past, all Ruby could recall was white, and when Kitsune opened her bag and pulled out Summer's cloak, Ruby's mind practically screamed at her to protect the cloak as if it were a person.

The tribe took her lack of memories surprisingly well, and many of them seemed to like the idea of her being a blank slate, though Kitsune was quick to tell Ruby to ignore them and focus on living how she wanted to live.

More than once Ruby considered just running away from the tribe, but each time she furiously clamped down on what she perceived at her own selfishness. She had her life saved by Raven, and she owed it to her to protect the tribe from anything that threatened them.

While it broke Ruby's heart to think about her lost past, she resolved that, whoever she used to be, she was not that person anymore, and that everything she now had was owed to Raven, Kitsune, Mittler, and begrudgingly admitted, Vernal. And she would do almost anything to repay them.

* * *

"Come on Rose, you can do better than that!"

Vernal yelled at the runt, who was still picking herself up from the ground, her aura flaring slightly but not yet shattered, and watching that lone silver eye glaring back at her. Wordlessly she leaned back down into a throwing stance, preparing to hurl one of her blades at the girl to shatter her aura and end the fight.

Panting, Ruby looked upwards at Vernal, eyes widening when she saw how the fight was going to finish, and she glared at the other girl, watching her rear an arm back and hurl the blade she held, and as she watched the blade fly through the air towards her chest she felt an indescribable splitting sensation and a major disorientation when she could suddenly see from several different places at once. And, if her opponents reaction was any indication, Vernal was not expecting it either.

Looking down, Ruby gasped when she saw rose petals floating around in a dense red cloud, and when she tried to take a step forwards, the cloud responded, shifting forwards slowly and stopping when she stopped trying to move. Stepping backwards, side to side, Ruby slowly experimented with her semblance, her mind completely distracted from her opponent, who was a bit too dumb-struck to take advantage of her opponents distraction, though she snapped out of it quickly.

"HEY!"

Shaking her head, Vernal yelled at Ruby, or the cloud which used to be Ruby, and watched as the petal swirled faster then dispersed, revealing a visibly exhausted and gleeful Ruby. "Well, I guess you aren't completely useless after all, eh runt?" Vernal jeered, watching with amusement, and just a tinge of worry when Ruby simply gave her a slightly small smile and immediately collapsed in place.

"Mittler!" Vernal yelled, stepping towards to examine Ruby, sighing when she saw the girl still breathing just fine and with a strong pulse. Hearing the footsteps coming from nearby, Vernal turned to see Mittler walking towards her, his eyes focused on Ruby, though she just shrugged. "Looks like Rose got her semblance finally, probably passed out from Aura Exhaustion, she had one hit left in her anyway."

Grumbling, Mittler laid his hand on Ruby's forehead, nodding at Vernal before running his arm under Ruby's knees and back, lifting her easily and carrying her back to her tent. Some quiet clapping drew Vernals attention to the other side of the tent, where Raven revealed herself. "Well, she's definitely growing fast."

"She's still weak." Vernal murmured, though not quiet enough for Raven to miss it, and her grin widened when Vernal let a slight dusting of red appear on her cheeks at being caught.

"Well, it looks like you just volunteered to keep training her. Hmm, and I was just about to find a new trainer for her, oh well!" Raven said, her ever-present smirk levelled at Vernal, who just shrugged.

* * *

Ruby could safely say that her favorite part of her new life was all the different places the tribe ended up in. She knew they were in Mistral from the boring geography lessons Kitsune forced her through, though where exactly was kept secret from her, a fact that irritated Ruby, even if she did understand that it was a good idea to keep it from any potential loose ends, since while she knew she'd never run away without very good reason, the tribe didn't know that.

But, while she didn't like not knowing exactly where they were, the views more than made up for it. Walking through the different areas of Mistral, from the swamplands of the west to the high wind-carved cliffs prominent in the east, Ruby always loved when Vernal told her they were moving the camp, though she hated how much menial work there was to do, since it took away from the time she could spend training.

Lifting a hand to her missing eye, Ruby smirked as she remembered the time, only a few days ago, where she used her semblance to avoid Vernal, sweeping in behind her and taking her legs out, making her slide across the ground and literally eat dirt.

Though she didn't enjoy recalling the beat-down she suffered at Vernals hands when the young woman stood back up. While Mittler was good, he couldn't fix everything, so now she had a few more scars mottling her arms, a fact that surprisingly didn't upset Ruby as much as she was sure it should. Though she attributed it to the lifestyle she was forced into.

Looking ahead of her at the long line of wagons transporting all the stuff the Branwen tribe had, Ruby sighed, as she still had yet to ever see the leader of the tribe, a fact that infuriated Ruby, since apparently, every single person in the tribe aside from her had met Raven at one point or another, yet Ruby was apparently being avoided by her elusive leader.

"Hey Rose." Vernal said, walking back beside her sparring partner to nudge her shoulder. "Heard you finally figured out what weapon you want to use." Vernal casually said, groaning when Ruby just nodded and ignored her. "Well?"

"Well what Vernal?" Ruby asked innocently, tilting her head to the side, though her smirk gave away her game, and Vernal took her revenge in her favorite way, quickly and decisively, sticking her foot out and shoving Ruby's back towards with an aura-enhanced shove, watching the girl fly forward and eagerly watching as the girl flew in the air about to run her face along the mud.

Irritatingly for Vernal, Ruby knew to expect her little sneak attack, preparing herself and just as her nose was about to start scraping the ground she used her semblance, bursting into petals and killing her momentum, before she reformed leaning against a tree with her arms crossed, a smirk on her face again. "Nice try Vernal."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just means I can go even harder in the next spar." Vernal murmured, speeding up her walk to catch up with the quickly disappearing column and leaving Ruby to sigh and look back the way they came.

Ruby had spent countless hours playing around with her semblance ever since she unlocked it, and she fell in love with just how versatile it was. She could disintegrate into rose petals and move in any direction, though moving up was difficult as she had to fight gravity and drained more aura. When she was in her disintegrated form she was capable of far higher speeds than normal, and her reaction times had picked up accordingly after running into numerous trees upon reforming with momentum. She could also partially disintegrate gaining a moderate speed boost whilst still keeping a physical form allowing her to attack and move at the same time, though she was far faster when completely 'petalized', as she nicknamed it.

Just as Ruby was about to turn around and continue walking, she heard a low growling coming from the treeline behind her, and her mind immediately snapped to Grimm, a fact that caused Ruby to nearly panic, before she calmed herself and turned quickly, drawing a dagger from its sheath in a reverse grip and baring her own teeth.

And was met not with the crimson eyes of a creature of Grimm, but instead the amber eyes of a wolf. Not a beowolf, just a regular, normal wolf. Letting out the breath she didn't realize she was holding, Ruby allowed herself to un-tense slightly, stepping back slowly from the growling wolf and keeping eye-contact at all times, not turning her back and instead keeping all her attention on the wolf that was equally focused on her.

Perhaps, if she had diverted her attention slightly, Ruby would have noticed the second wolf that was approaching her from the side. Not hearing it until it had already leapt, Ruby bit back a scream when the wolf clamped it's jaws down on her arm, feeling the pressure of its bite through her aura and the sharp points digging their way into her flesh.

Lashing out quickly, Ruby brought her dagger to bear, slashing at the wolf still attached to her arm and feeling its grip on her arm waver as the pain from her strike caused it to falter, allowing her to reel back and simultaneously swing her arm and slash at the wolf again, causing it to let go and fly into its packmate, sending the pair flying from the strength of her throw.

Flexing her arm a few times, Ruby nodded to herself when she saw no severe injuries, just a few minor puncture wounds, though her focus snapped back up to the pair of wolves who had recovered and were charging her, though the injured one was far faster, apparently wanting some revenge.

Eager to dish out more damage, Ruby flipped the knife in her hand over, holding it by the blade, before reeling back and throwing the dagger at the wolf, catching it straight in the eye and killing it dead, simultaneously drawing another dagger from the small of her back and bracing herself against the second wolf, who slammed into her arms ferociously and knocking her over, all the while biting, scratching, clawing, and doing its level best to maul her, though her aura took all the attacks, allowing Ruby to line up a stab straight up into the wolves head from below, and impale the wolves head on her blade.

Rolling out from under the animal before it could pin her with dead weight, Ruby pulled the blade out of the wolf smoothly, standing from the roll and grabbing the other dagger, wielding both and scanning her surroundings.

Seeing and hearing no more wolves, Ruby wiped the blood from her blades on a nearby tree, before looking over the two corpses with a smirk. Observing their wounds, Ruby nodded to herself, confident that she could make something from their hides, before another low growl pricked her hearing, and Ruby drew her dagger again with a sigh, turning towards the sound and freezing.

There, stood nearby and doing its level best to be intimidating, was an absolutely adorable wolf cub.

Her inhibitions all but forgotten, Ruby blitzed over to the cub with her semblance and swept it up in her hands, ignoring its attempts to slash at her as she observed it with a gleam in her eye. it looked healthy enough, and Ruby decided, then and there, that she wanted it, damn what the tribe said.

Laying her hand on the cubs head, Ruby rubbed it between the ears and began systematically petting it, both because of just how soft it's fur was, but also because she absolutely did not want her new pup to be hurt. Quickly checking, Ruby breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that the wolf was uninjured, and noted that she was female, and resumed her petting, all the while murmuring names to herself.

"Abby? No, that's awful. Spirit? Terrible. Shaba. Madre. Mikumi." She said aloud, each one getting a shake of the head, whilst the wolf cub went limp under her ministrations, finally giving up and enjoying the feeling of being pet by Ruby.

"Rogue? Yeah, Rogue, that's your name." Ruby said suddenly, picking up the wolf and spinning around, walking out to the trail the tribe walked down, wolf carcasses completely forgotten about.

Approaching the wagons, Ruby ignored all the stares the other members of the tribe levelled at her and her new friend, instead walking down the line until she saw Kitsune sat in the back of one of the wagons with her nose buried deeply in a book. Hopping up into the wagon, Ruby made Kitsune jump twice, firstly from her random appearance, and secondly because she was carrying a wolf cub in her arms.

"Ruby...Why do you have a wolf cub?" Kitsune asked slowly, her ears twitching in fear at being so close to such an animal, though Ruby ignored it in favor of petting her new friend.

"Because I wanted her?" She asked innocently, rubbing between the surprisingly docile wolfs ears with one hand whilst the other pet her body, who yawned and laid her head between Ruby's legs. "Besides, I killed her parents, so I couldn't just leave her there."

Sighing, Kitsune buried her head in her hands, muttering something before looking back up at Ruby. "You know you're gonna be responsible for looking after it, right?" She said, hoping Ruby would get the hint and let the wolf go, though when her face brightened up Kitsune knew it backfired and she groaned again as Ruby went off on a wild tangent about how exactly she was going to look after 'Rogue', as she apparently decided to call her wolf.

* * *

Popping open the case, Ruby picked out the contact lens, slipping it into place over her eye and blinking it into place, cringing at the feeling, whilst Rogue sat nearby yipping in amusement at her. "Laugh it up, fuzzball." Ruby murmured, though there was no heat in it, rubbing her wolf between the ears and getting another lighter yip of appreciation.

Throwing open the door to her new home, Ruby grumbled, stepping out into the downpour with Rogue on her heels, once again cursing Raven for sending her to Sanus on a "scouting mission". Not that Raven said as much to her face, instead relying on Vernal to deliver her little assignment. Ignoring the stares that both she and her companion got, Ruby set her shoulders and walked down the street in a mild hurry, eager to get out of the rain as soon as possible.

While it was an interesting spectacle to see a wolf, Ruby drew just as many eyes with her unique attire. Her old cloak had been turned into a liner for a long-sleeved blood-red leather jacket, whilst her mother's cloak, which was far more tattered, was made into a scarf. Underneath it, she wore a red shirt and a black tank-top for extra layers. On her hands she wore white fingerless gloves to go with her white scarf, and her legs were covered with simple blue jeans, though they were ripped at the knees for extra mobility. Her feet were covered with black combat boots, steel-toe-capped and with a handy surprise in the form of retractable kick-blades.

Her hair had been deliberately dyed, concealing the red tips with black. When Ruby asked for an explanation as to why she had to dye her hair and wear a contact lens, Vernal said Raven was worried Ruby would be noticed and linked back to the tribe, which would likely end up with Ruby having to fight her way out. When leaving the camp, Vernal stopped her and told her that Raven apparently wanted her to go by Ruby Miller, since they didn't want to risk her old family perhaps finding her, a thought which made Ruby shudder. She considered the tribe her family now, since it was they that saved her and made her strong, not whoever her 'family' was.

She'd spent the past few weeks outside the walls hunting down potential camp spots for the tribe as well as opportunities for decent scores. While Ruby didn't like what the tribe had to do, she understood it. So when she was told by Vernal that Raven had plans to move the tribe from Anima to Sanus, Ruby's surprise was palpable, as the tribe had never moved continents before, the logistics of moving all their people, and their belongings, was mind-boggling. Then, Vernal revealed that Ruby would receive the illustrious task of scouting ahead for them, much to her chagrin.

Shaking her head, Ruby refocused on her plans for the day, buy some dust and food supplies, spar with Rogue, try not to get licked to death again, and plan out her next excursion beyond the walls. All in all, a rather normal and productive day day, Ruby thought to herself as she rounded the corner to her favorite dust-shop, slinging open the door and giving the shopkeeper a quick wave, with Rogue yipping at him, before the pair set off to go hunt down some dust, fondly remembering the first time Ruby entered the shop with Rogue, giving the poor guy a heart-attack at having a wolf bounding up to him.

Despite Ruby's frequent apologies, he still kept an eye on the wolf, not trusting it to not run over and try to lick him again. Throwing a few various pieces of dust into a basket, Ruby set it down when she saw a new row of weapon magazines on one of the shelves, picking one out and thumbing through it eagerly, slipping her earphones on as she turned the dust-shop into a library, much to the shopkeepers chagrin, though he already knew interrupting her weapon studying was a stupid idea, and she usually paid for the books in the end, even if she'd already read them.

It was this evening that a familiar face made itself known in the form of Roman Torchwick, strolling down the street carelessly, whistling a happy tune to himself as his rent-a-thugs pushed aside civilians, and he set his sights on the entrance to his newest target. A bit small for his liking, but needs must, and this was the only available target on this fine eve, the rest being emptied already, or so heavily guarded that even Roman was iffy about trying to raid them.

Pushing the door open, Roman subtly swept his eyes across the shop and smirked when he saw how empty the shop was. Stepping up to the counter, Roman looked over the dust crystals with a gleam in his eye, before raising his view to look at the sweat beading down the side of the shopkeepers face. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a dust shop open this late?" He said, hearing the whine of a pistol being primed as one of the thugs, actually following the plan for once, raised his weapon at the shopkeeper.

"Please, just take my lien and leave." The man said, shaking in place at the sight of a gun-barrel aimed at his head.

"Sh sh sh, calm down, we're not here for your money." He said quickly, shaking his head. Turning to the man next to him, he let his voice fall to a deeper, more commanding tone. "Grab the dust." Hearing the thrum of dust being tubed into containers, Roman sighed, happy that a job could go over easily for once.

"Alright kid, put your hands where I can see 'em." Roman heard one of the mooks say, sighing as he hoped that they'd be able to handle what sounded like some unlucky kid. "Hey, I said hands in the air! You got a deathwish or somethin'?" Roman rubbed his, eyes, mentally hoping that the kid would just listen.

"Yes?" Ruby said, already angered at having her reading interrupted.

"I said, put your hands in the air, now." He said, raising his weapon at her slightly, confused when the girl just tilted her head.

"Are you...robbing me?" She asked, hand fingering the blade at her back, before thinking better of it and laying a hand on one of her many disposable blades.

"YES!" The man yelled at her, and Ruby firmed the grip she had on her blade.

"Ohh..."

The next moment, she was out on the street, the idiot who tried to rob her groaning on the floor with a knife stuck in his sword-hand, though Ruby ignored it in favor of drawing another two blades and glaring at the men in the shop, shaking her head to make her earphones fall into a more comfortable position around her neck. "Well, get her." The most flamboyant of the group said, and Ruby designated him as the leader of the group, though she focused more on the men charging her, leaning backwards to let a blade fly past her, snapping her hand up to strike his own with her blade and making him drop the blade in pain as her dagger pierced straight through his aura and into his hand.

Leaving the blade in place again, Ruby threw her other dagger at one of the other men, before kicking up a nearby fallen sword and giving it a practice swing or two. Satisfied, Ruby spun in place, assisted by her semblance, before throwing the sword and impaling another hand.

Smirking at the fear now clearly visible in the eyes of the few men left surrounding her, Ruby decided to stop toying with them, drawing out her collapsed sword and extending it, marvelling at the fear in the mens eyes as she drew her only non-disposable dagger in her off-hand and settled in place.

With a yell, the men charged her, trying to overwhelm her with numbers, through she quickly disintegrated into petals darting through a gap and reforming with a slash, breaking the aura of several thugs and laughing. Quickly thumbing one of the mecha-shift options of her blade, she watched the blade flip around and set itself in place facing away from the thugs. While she was annoyed at them, considering just how weak their aura was, she didn't want to accidentally kill somebody, it'd draw far too much attention. A few crippling wounds like hand impalements would be fine, since whilst it was nasty, they were trying to subdue her with lethal force, so she had a great argument for proportionate retaliation.

But, now that she was ready and clearly out-classed the thugs, if she ended up killing them, the police would likely see her with far more suspicion, and Raven wouldn't be happy if she had to be broken out of a lock-up during her mission.

Ruby put her thought process on hold as one of the few remaining thugs wizened up to her attack pattern, stabbing into the place she was planning on appearing in, though she saw the attack coming and skipped to the side, avoiding the attack and smashing her own weapon atop his hand, breaking at least a few bones and disarming him, before continuing on to the remnants.

With a sigh, Ruby looked at the last member of their group, the eye-liner wearing one, who was just looking at the men he'd brought, lying around in various states of annihilation, and he sighed. "Worth every lien, truly you were. Well Red, I think we can both say it's been an eventful evening. And as much as I'd like to stick around..." Ruby watched him raise his cane, already noting that the end of the cane was open, presumably a projectile of some kind. Readying her semblance, Ruby stayed in place, eager to see what exactly he had planned. "I'm afraid this is where we part ways." He said, a gunsight flicking up from the end of the barrel and she watched him launch some kind of dust explosive at her, though she disintegrated around it, watching him flee through the smoke and climb a nearby ladder.

Mentally debating the value of chasing him, Ruby settled for simply finding wherever Rogue got off to and leaving. Re-entering the shop, Ruby couldn't stop the laughter as seeing the shopkeeper on the floor, with Rogue doing her level best to lick his face off. "Ro-Rogue, c'mon, l-let's go." Ruby said between laughs, watching Rogue turn to look at her, before giving a final victory lick and leaping off the shopkeeper with a yip. Turning around to exit the shop, Ruby was stopped by a light-blonde haired woman with a fierce glare and crossed arms, a riding crop in one hand, whilst the other pushed her glasses up.

* * *

"They started it!" Ruby yelled at the annoying woman, already angry that they decided she needed a stern talking to, as if she didn't know the consequences of her actions. She knew well enough that if she wasn't there, the man would have been robbed blind. Because she was there, the man didn't lose any dust, the only damage was to the window she had to fly through and the explosion the leader, some guy called Torchwick, set off, and they captured his entire crew in one fell swoop. Instead she was stuck in a holding room with bitchface over there giving her a lecture.

"If it were up to me, you'd be sent home..." Ruby snorted at this. "With a pat on the back..." Ruby tilted her head in confusion. "...And a slap on the wrist." The woman punctuated that with a strike, slapping her crop down on the table in a boring attempt to intimidate Ruby, which she just yawned at, much to the womans chagrin, though she pushed her anger down. "But...there's someone here who would like to meet you."

Walking into the room, Ruby watched a man with grey hair and glasses, carrying a mug of steaming liquid and a plate of plain cookies, walk into the room and stare at her.

"Ruby Miller." He said, leaning forwards to look at her face closely, though he leaned back again and sat down, placing the plate of cookies down on the table in front of her.

"Professor Ozpin." Ruby said, sticking her tongue out at the man, though he ignored her to gesture at Glynda, who brought up a recording of her fighting.

"So, where did you learn to do this? Certainly not in any of the combat schools." Oz said, raising an eyebrow when the girl willingly took one of the cookies, sniffed it, then nibbled on it, before taking another and lowering it below the table.

"Oh no, I learnt outside the walls. You see, my family is really strong, and I wanted to be strong as well to protect them like they protected me...so I did. Get stronger that is, I still haven't had a chance to protect them, though I kinda hope that never happens since then that implies they're in danger and I don't want them to ever get hurt and I'm sure I could protect them but I'd rather just never have to and I'm babbling aren't I?" Ruby said, hanging her head when Ozpin chuckled at her.

"They taught you to do this?" He said, gesturing at the screen, where Ruby had stabbed one dagger into a mans shoulder and used it as leverage to flip herself over him, ripping the blade out and twisting to throw it at another man, both injuries whilst enough to take them from the fight, were deliberately not very likely to be lethal.

"Oh yeah. Well, all my moves are my own since nobody in the tribe fights like me, but I wouldn't be fast or strong enough if they didn't teach me first." Ruby said, watching he mans eyes glint slightly.

"Tribe?" Ozpin said, the gears in his head already turning.

"Oh yeah, I call them a tribe. Really they aren't tribal or anything like that, it's just a nickname I gave them." Ruby said, trying to protect her little slip-up, though if the thoughtful look on Ozpin's face was any indication, she failed.

"So, you want to protect people?" Ozpin said, filing the little tid-bit away for later and focusing on the girl instead.

"Well, the tribe mostly, but if I can protect a few people along the way, well that's worth something isn't it?" Ruby said, leaning back with a smile, internally panicking at what might end up happening. He might decide to throw her in jail, or make her leave Vale, or worse! Best play into his game and hope Raven isn't too angry.

"Well, while I will agree that your...'tribe' definitely taught you well, I can promise you my own school can hone your craft. That is...if you're willing to accept an invitation?" Ozpin said, smirking when the only sounds in the room were the yipping from the wolf he only just noticed was under the table, and the very loud, very high-pitched, pair of voices simultaneously yelling...

"WHAT?"

* * *

"OZPIN!"

Unbeknownst to the group, Raven had been watching the entire time, and growled when Ruby accepted, saying something about getting stronger and repaying her for it. Her and started twitching for the blade, and Raven was sorely tempted to portal there, ignore Ozpin, grab Ruby and Rogue, and drag them back, consequences be damned, but Raven stilled her anger, instead mulling over the possibilities she now had available to her having Ruby be in Beacon.

Sure, Ruby would now get stronger, which was handy, and she'd get an in with the huntsmen, meaning she could likely divert them away from the tribe if needs be. but at the same time Raven had to be careful to pull her out from under Ozpins sticky fingers before she got tied down by something stupid.

Deciding to bide her time, Raven watched as Ruby and Ozpin organized the whole thing, though it was clear Ozpin didn't trust when she said she had no way of actually contacting her home. She did, but Ruby was smart enough to not give information like that away for free.

After Ruby was finally let go and went home, as soon as the door was shut, Raven bit her lip, slashing her sword down to form the portal and stepping through, arriving with her arms crossed and a scowl on her face, though she had a hard time keeping it in place at the adoration on Ruby's face when she saw just who came through.

"RAVEN!" Ruby yelled, leaping at the woman with her semblance, who wasn't quite fast enough to stop the girl wrapping her arms around her, and she just sighed. Ruby was definitely Summer's child. Levering the girl off of her, Raven held her at arms length, ignoring the wolf nearby which was growling at her sudden intrusion.

"Ruby, calm down." Raven said, internally face-palming as the girl kept reaching for her. "While I'm annoyed at you, you have given us a way into Beacon, so I'll forgive you for it, as long as you don't attack-hug me like that again, hmm?" Raven said, patting the girl on the head when she let go and dropped her gaze to the floor in shame. "You know, I was going to send you to a combat school eventually. Granted it wouldn't have been Beacon, but you would have ended up in Shade or Haven Academy anyway, so getting in two years early is useful, and it gets you and your mutt out of our hair for a while.

"W-wait, so it's okay with you?" Ruby asked, her eyes lighting up when Raven nodded.

"Just try to refrain from mentioning anybody from the tribe. You already kind of gave away too much to Oz, and he's going to be looking at you closely, but there's not much you can do about that. Just, whatever you do, don't say my name at all. If you so much as slip up on that a single time, Oz will definitely put you under a magnifying glass, which is something you don't need."

The rest of the evening passed quickly, with Raven discussing things she should and shouldn't do in Beacon, while Ruby lapped it all up, too awed at being in Raven's presence to really care about the admonishment she suffered, until finally it became late and Raven had to leave back to the tribe, satisfied that Ruby would act in both her and the tribes best interests, rather than an unnamed bird-brained brother of hers.

* * *

Yang wasn't having a good day.

Of the friends she had talked to before the holidays, half or more had ended up not even making it to initiation, being turned away and leaving Yang with far fewer friends than she planned on.

Sighing, she turned her attention away from the small gaggle of people she'd found herself surrounded in and observed the airships other occupants. Sickly looking guy in armor. Black-clad bookworm. Girl in red. Guy with pink-hair being nagged by another girl. Rich-girl in a white dress.

Huffing, Yang set her shoulders, walking up to the girl in red and doing a double-take when she felt a sense of familiarity from the girl, though she couldn't think of why the girl seemed familiar. She had a missing eye, her other eye was blue, she had pure black hair, and she had scars running up and down her arms. No matter how hard she racked her brain, she just couldn't figure out why the girl felt familiar to her.

Shrugging, she waved at her, stepping back when she saw that what she thought was a fur-lined bag or something was actually a wolf, and it shifted slightly to look at her, while the girl above the wolf just crouched down to pet the wolf whilst staring at Yang, the sight of which made Yang coo.

"Hey there!" Yang said airily, sighing when they girl just blinked at her and tilted her head. "Okay, not a people person huh? I can dig it. I'm Yang, what's your name?" She said, sticking a hand out to shake, though the girl just looked at her hand like it was the strangest thing she'd ever seen.

"Ruby. Ruby Miller." The girl murmured, and Yang smiled at her, though it was clear the girl didn't really want company.

"Huh, small world. I had a sister called Ruby."

"Had?" Ruby asked, frowning when Yang nodded her head slowly. "I'm sorry for your loss." She said, mentally wishing the girl could just go away and leave her alone.

"Thanks. Well, I'll leave you to your petting." She said, turning away to find somebody else to socialize with, leaving Ruby to lean back against the wall, her hand still on Rogue's head, and sigh. Raven had explained to her about how huntsmen had teams of four they were assigned to in their first year, so no matter what, Ruby would be stuck with three other people to deal with, and for four whole years!

Hearing that, Ruby kind of regretted accepting Ozpins offer, but she'd done so, and had to push onwards. Running her hand through Rogues fur, Ruby slid down the wall until she was sat down, and Rogue picked herself up to slump over Ruby's legs, her head in Ruby's lap, gazing up at Ruby with amber eyes, closing them when Ruby scratched between her ears, entirely ignorant of the nearby cat faunus who walked close by accident and was panicking at being so close to a canine.

"Why is that thing on an airship?!" The girl yelled, getting the attention of Ruby and a few other passengers, who just snickered at her fear of the clearly docile wolf.

"Hmm? Why is Rogue on an airship?" At the girls frantic nodding, Ruby frowned. "Well, because Rogue is perfectly capable of joining me today. Just in case you were worried, she has her aura unlocked, and she's pretty good in a fight."

Sighing, the black-clad girl just walked away from the pair muttering, leaving Ruby to continue running her hands through Rogues fur. Leaning in close, Ruby whispered to the wolf. "I guess we're the star attraction, huh Rogue?" And getting a quiet yip in response. Smiling, Ruby looked up to see a girl in white approaching her, and sighed. "Does everybody on this airship want to see us or something?" She asked of the girl, cringing a little when the girl looked away in embarrassment.

"I...well...Can I-" Ruby stuck her hand out towards the girl, interrupted her, and waving her forward. Taking her hand when she got close enough, Ruby dragged her down and laid her hand on Rogue, watching her face go from slight fear and apprehension to adoration almost immediately. "Oh you're so soft. Aren't you just the most precious oh yes you are." The girl said, melting down into compliments and pats, whilst Rogue just lay there lapping it all up.

"Don't get too used to it fuzzball." Ruby said, poking Rogue, who tilted her head back to growl at Ruby, who just smirked in response, though the white-clad girl seemed a little worried at the casual aggression the wolf displayed. Turning back to her, Ruby put on her best placating smile. "Well, since Rogue likes you so much, I guess I have to play nice. I'm Ruby." She said, sticking a hand out to shake, which the girl took slowly and daintily.

"Weiss Schnee." The girl said promptly, and Ruby nodded, not sparing the girl another word as she went back to petting. " I must say, she's extremely well trained, how did you get her so friendly?" Weiss asked, eyebrows furrowing when Ruby shrugged.

"I dunno, she just is. I mean, I've had her since she was absolutely tiny, and while I trained her to attack and defend herself, I didn't exactly force her to be friendly, I think she learned her lesson when she tried to bite my arm off and failed miserably, she knows there's no point, and if she's friendly she gets treats and belly-rubs, isn't that right you big ball of fur?" Ruby said with a smirk, running her hands down Rogues midriff and ruffling her fur up, getting a light nip from the wolf in payback when she ran her hands too high up, much to Weiss's surprise.

"While I can see the logic in that, it still doesn't explain how she knows that she can do...that to you, but not try to bite anybody else."

"Oh, that's easy. She tried it once on another member of my family and got thrown across the clearing for her troubles. She knows I won't hurt her, but the others weren't as kind, so she took to basically ignoring them, though if they act like I do she mostly just leaves them alone." Ruby said, smiling to herself when she remembered the time that she finally convinced Kitsune to actually pet Rogue. As soon as she got over her initial trepidation, she had to be pried away from Rogue with crowbars, she didn't want to let the wolf go, much to Ruby's amusement.

"I see..." Was all Weiss said, and the two fell into a comfortable silence, petting the very happy wolf on Ruby's legs.

* * *

**I COULDN'T RESIST THE CUTENESS!**

**Okay, explanation time. Ruby doesn't use a scythe now. She has numerous daggers stashed away across her combat gear, a collapsible sword that can turn its own blade around to strike with the rear of the blade instead of the sharp part, so a non-lethal option, and she has a Valean steel dagger, which is her primary one and the strongest weapon she has, since it can't be broken easily, whereas her other daggers are regular steel.**

**Rogue is a red wolf, she's not following normal animal rules, instead she's kinda like a big puppy, because it's cute and screw logic, I want adorableness.**

**Like I said at the top, this chapter is way less brutal, though still a bit harsh in terms of how Ruby is being trained. The memory loss thing was a bit of an after-thought, since I wanted something to separate Ruby and Yang, so the first thing to come to mind was that she simply forgot her past. With the changes to her appearance and her missing eye, alongside the contact lens changing her remaining eye from Silver to Blue, she's not recognisable as Ruby anymore.**

**Also, Raven is far less heartless and single-minded in this story. She does care for Ruby, at least a little, and Ruby has grown on Vernal a bit as well, considering Vernal didn't immediately start 'training' her when she got insulted. Oz knows something fishy is going on, but the skills Ruby demonstrated were enough that he let her in, as he could see that her style, while quite ruthless, is definitely something he wants to cultivate.**

**Raven sending Ruby into Vale. I will admit, bit of a segway, I just needed Ruby in Vale for some reason, and Raven sending her there was the only effective way to do so, as there's now way Raven could move the whole tribe across the ocean from Anima and onto Sanus. If you guys can come up with a decent reason for Raven to have Ruby be in Vale, give me a shout and I'll see about slotting it into the story.**

**Last thing. HOORAY! This is now my longest chapter, beating out even Engineer Extraordinaire by a decent margin.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Writing chapter 2 felt strangely good.**

**Like, the same feeling I got when writing chapter 10 of Watching Rose, where I just felt free, like I could make whatever I wanted, no 'canon' to adhere to. And I'll be damned if I let this story tie me down with 5 chapters of boringness. I'm jumping head-first into Initiation and moving straight onto the meaty goodness that is the rest of the story.**

**Also, warm fuzzies. Whenever I write about Rogue and Ruby, I just have a warm feeling in my chest that makes me long for a companion like that.**

**But, enough of those feelings, on with the chapter...**

* * *

"Do not hesitate to kill everything in your path, or you will die..." Ozpin said ominously, though Ruby had to restrain a yawn at just how see-through his little act was. Letting her hand fall to her side, she ran it across Rogues head, giving her one last scratch for good luck before the pair settled into launching stances on their pad, before the pad shot them towards the forest. Wrapping her arms around Rogue, Ruby partially petalized herself, just enough to kill her momentum whilst still keeping hold of Rogue, and the pair glided down to the forest floor slowly and calmly.

Upon landing, Ruby stood to her full height, glancing around and nodding to herself when she observed no threats in the area, before taking off at a jog towards where she saw the temple, with Rogue hot on her heels.

It took surprisingly little arguing for Ozpin to allow Ruby to bring Rogue with her, since Rogue had been growing with Ruby and had her aura unlocked for a long time, meaning she was more than capable of keeping up with Ruby in stamina, was tough enough to take a swipe from a Beowulf, and was capable of covering Ruby if she ever found herself out of place without a dagger ready.

While there was no precedent for bringing animals to combat school, there certainly weren't any rules that said that they couldn't. Ozpin theorized that as long as the animal had aura it was just as capable of fighting Grimm, and thus allowed Ruby to bring Rogue. It probably helped that Ruby threatened to go back on what she said and leave Vale if she wasn't allowed to have Rogue with her.

Shaking her head, Ruby cleared her mind at the sound of combat in the clearing ahead of her. Palming one of her knives, Ruby threw a glance over her shoulder at Rogue before focusing forwards, darting into the clearing just in time to see a Beowolf rearing its arm back to attack, of all people, Weiss.

A growl in her throat, Ruby spun the knife in her hand so she held it by the blade, and quickly threw it, catching the Beowolf in the shoulder and stopping its strike a few feet from Weiss, who noticed the wolf at that moment and thrust her rapier into its throat. Glancing at her savior, Weiss let a small smile appear on her face at the sight of the red-clad girl and her wolf from the airship bounding into the clearing, though she frowned when her only acknowledgement was a nod before Ruby darted past her, wrenching the knife out of the disintegrating corpse and drawing another from her many sheaths, holding the one in her off-hand in a reversed grip and glaring at the swarm, whilst Rogue was beside her, growling at the numerous Grimm now surrounding the trio.

Darting forwards suddenly with assistance from her semblance, Ruby embedded her dagger straight between the eyes of the closest Beowolf, using it as an anchor to pivot on, releasing the blade and drop-kicking the next Beowolf along, sending it hurtling into another, before drawing another dagger and charging back into the fray, whilst Weiss just stared at the girl in surprise. Out of all the combat styles she'd seen, Weiss could safely say the girl used the most absolutely unorthodox method possible, regularly leaving behind her daggers and using them to manoeuvre out of seemingly in-escapable attacks.

Without warning Rogue joined her master, leaping at a Beowolf attempting to get an opportunistic swipe in and countering by clamping her jaws down on its arm, overwhelming the Beowolf with sheer strength as she swung it about like an over-sized chew toy and launched it at a group of Beowolves, watching as the flailing Grimm bowled over the entire swarm before yipping and regrouping with her master.

Sighing, Weiss spun the cylinder of Myrtenaster around, halting it on Ice and forming several glyphs, firing them in volleys at the horde of Grimm, cutting through swathes of the weak creatures effortlessly, though it quickly exhausted both her aura and her dust supply.

From her relatively safe position in the centre of the clearing, Weiss watched Ruby and Rogue zipping their way around her, keeping the Grimm at a distance and allowing her free-rein to attack with longer and less mobile attacks, which she took full advantage of, continually pumping out glyphs and firing Ice at the rapidly thinning creatures.

With a final smirk, Ruby sunk her dagger deeply into the Grimm ahead of her, watching the red light leave its eyes as it died, hopping off of it swiftly and beginning the process of zipping around collecting her fallen daggers, grinning when she noticed Weiss just standing in the clearing, catching her breath and watching Rogue as she gathered up a few of the blades herself, carrying them in her mouth by the handle and trotting over to deposit them at Ruby's feet with a yip and a furiously waving tail, which she rewarded with a head-scratch.

"Well, guess we're partners huh? Hooray for already being introduced." Ruby said, though her voice didn't exactly sound too enthusiastic, but Weiss ignored that, clearing her throat and straightening her posture, sheathing Myrtenaster and sticking her hand out.

"Well, I shall look forward to it." She said promptly, though as soon as Ruby was finished shaking her head she hopped straight over to Rogue to rub between her ears. "And I'm definitely looking forward to spending time with you, oh yes I am."

Rolling her eyes, Ruby laid her hand on Weiss's shoulder, dragging her away from Rogue and towards the edge of the clearing. "Well, we should get a move on. Don't want to be a late pair do we?" She said, releasing Weiss from her grasp and continuing on her way, Rogue following close behind, leaving Weiss to just stare after her for a moment before shaking herself and jogging to catch up.

"Are you sure this is the right way?" The Heiress asked slowly, frowning when Ruby just pointed into the sky and smirked. "What's that supposed to prove?"

Sighing, Ruby stopped to level a weak glare at Weiss, who wilted a little under the scrutiny. "Really? Did you not note what direction the relic temple was in?"

"How am I meant to know? I don't know if you noticed this, but not all of us have abilities suited for mid-air reconnaissance, alright? If I tried to use a glyph to stay above the tree-line, the g-forces from that would kill me." Weiss said, stomping her foot on the ground in frustration at being forced, in a rather roundabout way, to admit that her semblance wasn't as strong as some made it out to be.

"Hmph, coulda fooled me. Anyway, the temple is north of us, and it's morning, so the sun is to the east. Using that, it's pretty easy to figure out the general direction we should be heading it. Then, triangulating our location by using the cliffs alongside other landmarks like the mountains, and the relative position of the sun, that gives me a pretty good idea of just where the temple is, which is about a mile and a half that way." Ruby said, flailing a hand vaguely in the direction of the ruin and hoping the girl would just shut up and let her get on with the initiation.

Continuing her walk, Ruby counted as the blissful seconds turned into minutes and the Schnee following her fought to initiate some kind of small talk. Ruby didn't really plan on being shoved into a team, and she was adamant that she socialize with her 'team' as little as possible. As far as she was concerned, her team encompassed her, Rogue, and on a good day, Kitsune. She wasn't stupid enough to even remotely consider that Raven would ever need to be on her team, and while she appreciated Vernals training, she still didn't exactly like the bitch. Rounding off the group of people she knew in the tribe, Mittler was not a fighter, so if he was on her team something was going horribly wrong.

Not to say Kitsune was much better, but she could hold her own well enough. Letting her mind wander, Ruby absent-mindedly spun a throwing knife around in her hands, weaving it between her fingers and around her hand, occasionally throwing it between her hands and back again, which served to scare and irritate Weiss more than once when it looked like she was about to cut her own finger off.

Having had enough, Weiss stuck her hand out to grab Ruby's wrist, drawing her attention, and gestured at her hand. "Why must you insist on doing such a...dangerous act in the middle of Grimm territory? If you mess up, you'll be in worse shape when fighting Grimm." She said, stepping back when Ruby levelled a sharp glare at her.

"Aww, are you worried for me Weiss? Don't be." Ruby said flatly, going back to playing with her knife and walking, though she kept the conversation up, just to humor the girl's incessant need to converse with her, which was evident considering how she kept worrying her lip and drawing breath to speak only to stop herself. "Besides, if I'm about to run my own hand through, I can just stop it with my aura. Little cuts and scratches aren't exactly a big deal, so I can just ignore them, not that I do that anymore. I don't like to brag, but I'm not exactly a novice with my knives, Weiss. Look."

Ruby sheathed the knife she was playing with, showing Weiss her hands and splaying out her fingers, waggling them about and proving that, despite her running the blade all across her hands, she didn't have so much as a single piece of scratched skin. Looking closely, Weiss searched for any indication that she had just hidden a scratch somewhere, but eventually had to admit that the girl was better than she looked. "Hmph, fine." Weiss said dismissively, taking the lead when Ruby put her hands back to her sides and striding through the forest.

And nearly jumping out of her skin when Ruby laid her hand on her shoulder firmly. "Wh-" was all she could say before Ruby laid her hand over her mouth, her eyes looking into the forest. If that wasn't enough to set Weiss off, the stance Rogue had taken, low and tense, would definitely tell her that the pair had sensed something she hadn't.

Turning her attention forwards, Weiss looked and listened intently, searching for any sign of what had set the two off. After a few moments, she noticed something. First it was the smell, then it was the sound, before finally Weiss laid her eyes on a giant Nevermore.

Feeling the hand on her mouth lift away, Weiss watched Ruby draw a sword handle from under her arm and press a button on it somewhere, making the girl step backwards when the blade unfurled and snapped into place with a buzz as she sliced the air in front of her. So distracted with the sudden strike, Weiss only then noticed that she had pulled a dagger from somewhere rather than one of her throwing knives, evidenced by the length and the two-sided sharpness, as well as the intricate designs on the blade.

Without warning, Ruby zipped forwards, leaving Weiss stood in place, staring at the cloud of petals in surprise, and a half-second later the pained whine of the Nevermore cried out as Ruby gave it no chance to wake up and fight back, burying her sword down to the guard into it's eye-socket with no pre-amble, before wrenching the blade out viciously, eviscerating everything that amounted for innards inside of the now-dead Nevermores head.

Hopping away from the disintegrating Grimm corpse, Ruby swung her sword to clean it of the dissolving liquid, collapsing it back into it's handle-form and re-attaching it under her arm, doing the same with her dagger, while Weiss slowly caught up to the fact that she went from silent and calm to...THAT in less than a second. Looking at Ruby's face when she had her sword buried in the Grimms face, Weiss shuddered at the sheer feral glee on the young girls face, before making her own assumptions and tying her lost eye to the Grimm, a reasonable jump to make. Surely, one who lost an eye to the Grimm would relish hunting that which pained them so.

Her inner thoughts went un-noticed to Ruby, who took a few breaths to calm herself and get back to normal before slapping a smile onto her face at Rogue, who was calmly sat licking at her paw, since the wolf knew that to Ruby, killing a sleeping Grimm was childs play.

"What was that?!" Weiss screamed at Ruby, who just looked at her in surprise, sticking a finger in the ear that the girl had temporarily set ringing.

"Could ya not do that Weiss? That hurt." She said, grimacing at the uncomfortable feeling, which she was used to, having been around the tribe enough to be forced to fire guns a few times, though she never really liked them too much, and definitely didn't relish the tinnitus they caused. Being used to it didn't make it any better though, and she sighed as her hearing slowly came back, shaking her head at Weiss and walking off towards the temple again, much to her irritation.

* * *

After about 20 minutes or so of un-interrupted walking, the pair finally made it to the Temple, noting that they weren't the only pair to arrive, as one other pair was stood at the Temple, and several of the pedestals were empty, an indication that other applicants had already made it.

Looking over the remaining pedestals, Weiss breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that there were still plenty of relics remaining, though she huffed at being slower than so many other people.

"Oh, it's those two." Ruby said, drawing Weiss's attention from which relic to pick and to the other pair, a blonde-haired girl who was talking rather animatedly with a black-haired girl, who had her nose in a book for some reason and was doing her level best to ignore her partner.

Ignoring them, Ruby used her semblance to zip over to the relics, picking one up at random and throwing it into a pouch on her belt, before turning back to Weiss and raising a hand to her mouth to stifle her laughter. "What?" Weiss yelled, surprised when Ruby raised a hand to point behind and above her.

Spinning around, Weiss caught a brief flash of blonde and white before she was bowled over by something. Immediately trying to free herself and get Myrtenaster between her and her attacker, Ruby finally couldn't hold it and burst out laughing, much to Weiss's confusion, though she was quickly joined by Rogue, who began yipping in amusement.

Shaking her head to get her bearings, Weiss finally noticed that her assailant was actually one of the boys up on the cliff, and that he was about as dazed as she was. Grumbling, Weiss glared at Ruby, who was desperately trying, and repeatedly failing, to stop her laughter. "Ruby...why did you not warn me?" Weiss asked, forcing her voice into some semblance of calm.

"Because I did. I pointed him out to ya." Ruby said once her laughter was under control, wiping a tear from her eye and looking at the pair. "Besides, it was funny to watch you thrash about under him, for a moment you even looked like you were considering just stabbing him. Probably not a smart idea huh Weiss?" Ruby said, scratching Rogues head as she walked over to help her partner up, though it was more of a forced rising as she grabbed her arm and yanked her up.

"Well, that was something..." The blonde-haired girl finally chimed in, looking between the four of them in confusion and amusement. "So vomit-boy, where'd you come from?" She asked, staring at the boy who nearly flattened Weiss, who just slumped at the nickname.

"It's Jaune, actually. I uhh...kinda got launched here by a Deathstalker." He said, wincing when Ruby burst out laughing again. "It's not that funny! I grabbed its stinger because it was dark and the glow looked like a relic, and then it wasn't, and it chased after Pyrrha out of the cave and flung me and now she's alone against it and oh there she is..." He ended, and Ruby followed his gaze over to the forest where Pyrrha was running full-tilt at the group.

"Well, this should be fun. Haven't actually fought Deathstalkers much." Ruby said outloud, quietly enough that only Blake actually picked up on it, though the raven-haired girl just shook her head at Ruby, grasping Gambol Shroud and hearing the sounds of the deathstalker smashing through the...

"Uhh, there's something else coming from over there." Blake said, pointing towards a different section of forest and watching as an Ursa burst through the treeline, flopping down dead and revealing an orange-haired girl who was riding it, and a boy with a strip of pink hair chasing after her breathlessly.

Shrugging, Ruby turned away from the already dead Grimm and watched the area Pyrrha had arrived from whilst the few who hadn't already done so went and grabbed relics. Just as Jaune laid his hand on a relic, as if on cue, the Deathstalker smashed through the trees, sending large husks of wood across the clearing and forcing many of the huntsman-in-training to concentrate on avoiding the deadly wood chunks.

Grasping her sword handle, Ruby made to enter her semblance and end the fight quickly, but was stopped short when a high-flying piece of wood smashed down in front of her, stalling her movement for long enough to let the Deathstalker stab its stinger at her. Falling back on years of evading Vernals strikes, she leaned backwards, letting the stinger pass harmlessly over her. Hearing a yell of "Ruby" from her team-mate, she ignored it in favor of drawing her sword and slicing through the vulnerable joint holding the stinger in place as it passed her, neatly removing the extended stinger in one motion and burying her knife in the exposed flesh, digging it in deep and getting a firm hold as the Deathstalker pulled it's tail back in pain, raising her right above its head.

Letting go of her knife, Ruby eyed one of the Deathstalkers eyes as she fell, tightening her grip on her sword and falling straight for its face, rearing the blade back to ram it through the eye-socket in the same way she'd dealt with the Nevermore.

Unfortunately for Ruby, the Deathstalker she was attempting to kill was old, and it watched her attach herself to its tail, seeing her blade coming and stopping her by swinging its entire body, moving it's face out of the way of danger and placing her straight in the path of its pincer.

Cursing, Ruby petalized, letting the pincer pass through her easily while she focused on moving back to Rogue and Weiss, zipping across the clearing quickly and reforming, sheathing her sword again and grabbing two more knives, though she was stopped by a hand on her shoulder. Following the hand back to its owner, she saw Weiss looking at her with a mixture of anger and worry.

"Why would you just charge in like that you dolt? You could have gotten yourself killed!" Weiss yelled, wincing when Ruby glared at her.

"Because I saw an opportunity, and I know my skills enough to know how to get out of a tight situation, as you just saw. Now let me go." Ruby said, turning her attention back to the Deathstalker who was still attacking the left-over petals, though the grip on her shoulder only tightened, forcing her to look back at Weiss.

"Ruby, we're teammates, we have to work together." Weiss said, almost pleadingly, as it was clear Ruby just wanted to go and get back into the fight.

"Well, do you have any better suggestions for kill..." Ruby trailed off, looking over at all of the other pairs, before a smirk appeared on her face and she looked at Weiss. "Okay Weiss, you want teamwork? Well, I have a plan." She said, quickly whispering her idea at Weiss, who first looked sceptical but finally and begrudgingly accepted it.

"HEY, ORANGE-HAIRED GIRL!" Ruby yelled, getting the attention of the aforementioned girl, who currently had her hammer out and on one shoulder. "I have a plan, kinda need your hammer for it though, if you're up for it!" Ruby said, zipping over to the girl to whisper the plan in her ear, while Weiss went over to Jaune and Pyrrha and explained Ruby's plan to them, which they quickly accepted, though Jaune looked a bit worried at his role.

Meanwhile, Blake, Yang and Ren were stood off to one side, wondering just what the red and white pair were getting up to, though Ren was just happy for a small break from Nora's excitability. "Hey, don't we get a role in your master plan?" Yang asked, sticking her hands on her hips and staring at Ruby, who just shrugged.

"If you want you can go punch it, won't do much though. Don't worry, we can kill it just fine. I guess just don't let any other Grimm sneak up on us." She said, springing into action and landing next to the Deathstalker, who had stopped attacking the petals at this point and was now looking at the girl in fury, who just smirked back.

Without warning, it lashed out with a pincer, only to be intercepted by Pyrrha, who smashed her shield into the pincer and lodged it as far as it could go, trapping the pincer wide open. In its rage, the Deathstalker swung its other pincer, only to have the same treatment done to that pincer by Jaune, who, with a little subtle assistance from Pyrrha, managed to lodge his shield in much the same way, leaving the Grimm defenceless. Attempting to retreat, the Deathstalker took one step back and was frozen in place by Weiss, who had set glyphs under each of its legs, pinning it in place.

Taking her sword from its position and unfurling it, Ruby slowly made her way over to the head of the Deathstalker, who was writhing furiously and glaring up at the girl hatefully. Laying her sword in place, Ruby yelled "Hammer-time!" at Nora, who used Pyrrha's shoulder as a springboard to get extra height, flying up into the air and crashing back down, all her force focused on the head of her hammer, which struck Ruby's sword and hammered it straight through the chitinous armor protecting the Deathstalkers vulnerable innards, the sheer force of the strike turning its brains to jelly.

Flicking her hands out to dispel the strange feeling of her sword practically vibrating in her hands from the force, Ruby turned back to her impromptu team with a smile. "Well that wasn't so hard. Ancient Deathstalker my ass." She said, smirking when Weiss clammed up at her casual language.

* * *

"And finally, Ruby Miller, Rogue, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao-Long. The five of you-"

Ruby tuned out Ozpin, idly patting Rogues head and looking out over the crowd. She had paid attention to Ozpin enough to be surprised when Jaune was assigned as the leader of his team, despite being clearly the weakest, but Ruby knew that Ozpin had a sharp eye for that kind of thing.

"WHAT?" The shrill voice of Weiss stung her ear, and Ruby glanced over at Ozpin for an explanation.

"Ahem. As I was saying, you shall be known as Team RRWBY, lead by Ruby Miller." Ozpin finished, covering his smirk with a sip from his thermos, as Ruby just stared at him irritated, Rogue just stayed sat in place, Weiss looked ready to explode, Blake looked like she'd rather have a book and a quiet corner, and Yang just looked excited to be there.

"Looks like things are shaping up to be an interesting...year." Ozpin said, gazing at his students with a keen eye, lingering for a touch longer on the wolf on the stage before following the hand perched on her head and firmly focusing on Ruby. Ozpin was sharp, dangerously so, though thousands of years of forced reincarnation would do that to anybody. And he knew something was not quite right with the girl in front of him. He'd already theorized that it was likely the Branwen tribe had sent her to Vale, he had several things adding to his suspicion, though none of it was concrete, though enough things set off his alarm bells to garner a wary observation of the girl.

Despite that, he had a scratching feeling in his head that there was something major he was missing with the girl. Disregarding everything else, he felt a simple pull to try and figure out what this new enigma would bring. He had no doubt that she could become a threat, but to whom? If sharpened in just the right way, perhaps the girl could be a valuable blade in his fight against Salem. But, from her personality, and her tendencies when fighting Grimm, she could also be unstable enough to fall into Salem's clutches, and in her hands, Oz had no doubt that she'd become devastating.

Taking another sip of his beverage, Ozpin left the stage to Glynda, who explained the rest of the information necessary to the students, and went to his tower to ponder the puzzle fate has dumped on his doorstep.

* * *

**Explanation time!**

**So, Ruby uses throwing knives, a dagger and a collapsible sword in this story. She uses something similar but without the throwing knives in Watching Rose, but not a big deal. Now, she keeps her sword under her left arm, so she can draw it and use the forming of the sword to conceal her drawing her dagger from the other arm.**

**Her weapon also forms really quickly, since the only forms it has right now is storage and sword, meaning that she can use it against over-confident opponents who think she only has throwing knives, drawing it and attacking in a single half-second motion, kind of like a pseudo-iaido form, though she doesn't re-sheath after her attack obviously.**

**I go into a bit more depth at the bottom of my profile, but only in how the weapons are positioned.**


End file.
